Feeling Like A Genius
by dS-Tiff
Summary: It's the day before Cabe's trial and Ralph is refusing to face up to the possibility of losing him (because he's a mini-Walter), but Walter, of all people, is the one person who can help.


_**This is set the day before Cabe's trial. I've been thinking a lot about Ralph and how we haven't seen enough of him this season and so I wanted to write this. I hope you enjoy it. All comments welcome, thank you kindly.**_

 **Feeling Like A Genius**

"Is that supposed to be on fire?"

Ralph looked up from his work and acknowledged Toby with a nod. "It's a science experiment," he said by way of explanation.

"I figured as much," replied Toby, his gaze returning to the tower of burning material on the workbench. "Unless you've suddenly developed pyromaniac tendencies and I missed all the signs."

"I have to record how long it takes different objects to burn," explained Ralph. "It's a waste of time. I could just calculate it using the basics of fire dynamics."

"Not quite as fun as setting fire to stuff though, right?" said Toby with a grin.

Ralph's face displayed the merest hint of a smile. "I guess," he replied with a half-hearted shrug.

Toby swung his leg over a chair and sat across from the boy. Together they silently watched the flames die down. Ralph glanced at the stopwatch on his phone. "Two minutes and thirty eight seconds," he noted. He glanced at his notepaper and rolled his eyes. "Exactly what I've already written down, what a surprise," he said.

Toby studied the young genius for a moment before speaking. "Sometimes it's good just to focus on something though, isn't it," he said. "Helps to take your mind off other things." He paused and waited to see if Ralph would react.

He didn't.

"Other things that might be worrying you," Toby pushed.

Ralph shrugged. "I guess," he said, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Toby.

"Is there anything worrying you right now?" Toby continued.

Silence.

Toby folded his arms on the workbench in front of him and rested his chin on them. Wisps of smoke were billowing from the remains of Ralph's science experiment and Toby blew gently to make it dance in spirals, drawing Ralph's attention. "We're all worried about Cabe," said Toby.

"I'm not worried about Cabe," replied Ralph, defiantly. "Sylvester is the most intelligent lawyer ever to walk into a court room and besides, I believe in the American justice system. I'm not worried about Cabe."

"You said that twice, pal," noted Toby. "You know what that means."

"Not this time it doesn't," replied Ralph. "I should clear this away, lunch is almost ready."

Toby lifted his head, letting out a small sigh. Sometimes it seemed as though Ralph was becoming more and more like Walter every day. "It might be a good idea to prepare yourself in case things go wrong," he said.

Ralph stopped tidying for a moment and looked at Toby with a shocked expression on his face. "You don't think Sylvester can do this?" he asked.

"Of course I do," insisted Toby. "Sly's the sharpest lawyer in town! But you know things sometimes don't work out the way we hope they're going to..." he trailed off for a moment to gauge Ralph's reaction.

It only took a couple of seconds before Toby saw the exact marker he'd been waiting for.

"I know you've been thinking about it, Ralph," he said gently. "It's OK to be a little anxious about what might happen tomorrow."

Ralph drew in a sharp breath. Of course he knew he wouldn't be able to fool Toby for long, but he'd really hoped to avoid talking about Cabe. He thought for a moment before speaking. "If... if Cabe goes to jail tomorrow" he began, quietly. "We... we won't give up, will we?"

"Of course we won't!" exclaimed Toby. "Cabe is innocent, it might just take a little longer to prove it, that's all."

"So we'll keep searching for Mark Collins?" asked Ralph.

"You bet we will," Toby replied.

"Walter and I have been working on the algorithms for CLAM," said Ralph, becoming more animated. "I think if we tighten the parameters…"

"Does your mom know Walter has you working on CLAM?" asked Toby in surprise. Knowing how they'd kept Paige in the dark about their slightly illegal system to try to track down Collins, he wasn't sure she'd approve of her son becoming involved.

"Yes…maybe," replied Ralph a little sheepishly. "What's important is that we find Collins."

"What's important is that your mom doesn't get mad with Walter," Toby pointed out.

"Why would I be mad with Walter?"

Toby and Ralph both spun round at the sound of Paige's voice.

"No reason," Ralph responded, nonchalantly. "I'll go wash up for lunch," he added as he walked away.

Paige watched him go before turning her attention back to Toby. "OK, you need to tell me what all that was about," she demanded.

"Nothing," insisted Toby. "Actually I was trying to get him to open up about Cabe."

"Oh," said Paige, her shoulders slumping. "He won't talk to me, I've tried. I know he's worried sick. He's worse than Walter."

Toby nodded. "He sure is," he agreed. "At least you got Walter talking. Look, I can try pushing a little harder, if that's OK with you? I'll be careful, but he needs to dig deep and express himself. This really isn't a good time for Ralphy-boy to go all 'silent genius'."

Paige nodded. "Do whatever you need to," she said. "If it all goes horribly wrong tomorrow, it's going to be so hard for all of us. I'm going to have enough trouble dealing with it myself and I hate to say it, but I don't think I can cope with Ralph too if he isn't mentally prepared."

"I'm sure you'll do just fine whatever happens," Toby tried to reassure her. "But I'll have another chat with him after lunch."

They walked over to the table, expecting to find Ralph already waiting for his food, but the only person there was Walter. "Where did Ralph go?" asked Paige, touching his shoulder lovingly.

"He went into the trailer," replied Walter. "He said he needed to look for something."

"Hmmm," said Toby and exchanged a worried glance with Paige. To their surprise Walter picked up on it almost instantly.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Is something the matter with Ralph?"

"He's not talking about Cabe," Paige explained. "You remember how hard you found it to talk to me the other day?"

"Of course," agreed Walter. "It isn't easy for me to, um, to admit how I feel."

"Or that you feel anything at all," noted Toby.

Walter ignored the jibe.

"Well, Ralph is keeping all his feelings inside about Cabe," Paige explained. "He's as scared as the rest of us about losing him, but he needs to talk about it."

Walter pushed his chair back and got to his feet. "I'll go talk to Ralph," he said.

"No!" exclaimed Paige and Toby in unison.

Walter looked genuinely offended at their outburst and Paige felt suddenly guilty.

"Are you suggesting I am not capable of doing this?" asked Walter. "I am the one who understands the most how he's feeling, I can help him."

"He has a point," said Toby.

"I'm sorry," said Paige. She reached out and slipped her hand into his. "I'm just so worried about Ralph. Of course you should talk to him. Thank you."

Walter brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. "You know I would never do anything to hurt Ralph," he said and Paige smiled and nodded, before releasing her grip on his hand.

"Go easy," urged Toby as Walter headed towards the trailer.

Walter didn't look back before knocking on the door. "You OK in there, Ralph?" he called out, but opened the door without waiting for a reply.

He found Ralph sitting on the tiny couch and staring into space. Walter took a seat next to him.

"Toby and my Mom made you come in here, didn't they," said Ralph without shifting his gaze. "They think we should talk about Cabe and the trial and everything."

"Actually, I wanted to come and talk to you," explained Walter.

Ralph spun round to face him. "You did?"

Walter nodded. "I, um... you see, you and I are alike in many ways."

Ralph smiled and nodded proudly. He wanted to be like Walter more than anything in the world.

"And I, er, I understand that you don't want to talk about how you feel," continued Walter. "Talking about feelings can seem like an inefficient use of time."

"We could be working on the algorithm for CLAM," noted Ralph.

"Well, yes we could," admitted Walter. "However I believe that you may find it beneficial to talk first. I was able to share my, um, my concerns with your Mom recently and I found it very useful in that the part of my brain which was, um, which was trying to process my feelings has now been freed up for other matters."

Ralph thought about Walter's words for a moment. "So if I tell you about my feelings then my mind will be able to fully concentrate on the algorithms we need to alter?" he asked.

"Yes," agreed Walter. "At least, I think so. Your Mom taught me that although feelings can be… well, uncomfortable sometimes, we still have to feel them in order to make sense of them. Do you understand?"

There was a silent pause. Walter had hoped Ralph would have felt able to open up to him without further prompting, but it seemed the young genius wasn't going to make it that easy.

Walter cleared his throat. "So, how do you... um, how do you feel about the trial?"

"I feel that Cabe is going to win because he is innocent and because he has a genius lawyer," said Ralph, matter of factly.

Walter sighed. He was beginning to wish he'd left this to Toby and Paige after all.

"Ralph, you do understand that if the judge believes Cabe is guilty he will go to prison tomorrow, don't you?"

"I'm a genius, I know how the system works," retorted Ralph.

Walter took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than he imagined. "Feelings can be very complicated," he began. "But if Cabe is sent to prison, I know that I will feel... um, that I will feel sad. Very sad," he began.

He knew that 'sad' didn't even begin to describe how he would feel, but right now he just didn't have the vocabulary.

"Because... because I, um, I care about Cabe," continued Walter. "I care about him a lot. In fact I... I love him."

Ralph's eyes widened as Walter spoke. He'd never considered how anyone else felt about Cabe before. It wasn't something that he found easy to do, he had enough difficulty processing his own emotions let alone being able to think about how other people felt.

He knew Walter loved his Mom and he knew his Mom loved Walter, but it wasn't something he'd ever discussed openly with either of them. He knew Toby and Happy loved each other, but that was because they were married and he knew that married people loved each other, at least most married people did.

Love, he began to realise, can make you feel different things and his bottom lip started to quiver as he thought about his feelings for Cabe. And for Walter too, now that he'd started to think about it. He felt a sudden rush of emotion and he had no idea what to do about it.

"I... I love him too," he whispered and then he could do nothing to stop the sobs welling up.

"I know," Walter responded and in an instant he had wrapped his arms around the boy. "We all do," he said, soothingly. "And whatever happens we will get through it together, as… as a family."

Outside in the garage Paige and Toby had finished putting lunch on the table.

"Happy should be back any minute," said Toby.

"Where is she?" asked Paige.

"Riding around on her motorbike, trying not to think about Cabe," replied Toby, shaking his head in mild despair. They were all dealing with things in their own way.

"What am I going to do with you geniuses?" asked Paige with a tiny smile.

Just then the door of the trailer opened and Walter and Ralph stepped out. Walter had his arm around Ralph's shoulders.

Paige could see Ralph was upset and as much as she hated to see her son in distress she knew it meant Walter had made a breakthrough. She ran over and Ralph fell into her arms. She held him tightly and glanced up at Walter. "Thank you," she said. Then she looked into Ralph's sad eyes. "Do you want to go up to the loft and talk some more? Just you and me? We can eat later." Ralph nodded silently and grasped Paige's hand tightly before leading her towards the stairs.

"Shout if you need me," Toby called after them.

Paige turned back and looked over her shoulder. "I think we'll be OK," she replied with a smile.

Walter and Toby watched them go before Toby gave Walter an affectionate slap on the back. "You OK, Walt?" he asked. It was obvious that Walter was also upset.

Walter nodded. "A child's emotions can, apparently, be quite intense," he noted quietly. "Even a genius child's. I… I hope I was of some help."

Toby smiled. Normally he would never say anything to stroke Walter's ego, but this time he knew his friend deserved the credit. "Looks to me like you were," he said. Toby knew Walter found it difficult enough to process his own feelings, but now it seemed he was beginning to understand Ralph's as well. "I think you're really making progress."

Walter nodded in agreement and the corners of his mouth twitched into a smile. "I, er, I have Paige to thank for that. I have Paige to thank for everything."

THE END.


End file.
